Air Force Chief Denounces Sex Assaults

Published 7:00 pm, Wednesday, February 26, 2003

Female Air Force Academy cadets should be able to report sexual assaults without fear of retribution _ and any cadet who commits a sex attack doesn't belong in the service, the Air Force secretary said.

"We have got to make sure that if someone comes forward (to report an attack), it's not open season on their life," James Roche told KMGH-TV in Denver on Wednesday.

Roche was expected to address cadets Thursday.

Twenty current and former female cadets have said they were disciplined after reporting they were sexually assaulted. The Air Force is investigating, and three U.S. senators have called for an independent inquiry.

"Any one of our cadets who assaults a woman sexually is a criminal," Roche said. "And we don't want that person flying a plane with a couple of thousand pounds of bombs under his wing. We simply don't want him in our Air Force."

Roche has ordered a task force to examine how the academy deals with sexual assaults. Sens. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., have called for an outside inquiry.

"It seems like every day more people call. It's disturbing," Allard said.

In a letter to Roche, Allard said he's been told by female cadets that after they reported assaults their investigative reports were lost, they were not allowed to have a family member or advocate present when they were questioned, and they never knew whether their assailant had been punished.